Rather than manage the whole heavy manuscript of Intruder, with spilling pages and markup, this time Jane loaded it onto the Kindle, the same way we just did the galleys. She read it, installed notes, and now I’m reading it on the Kindle, and diving aside to the manuscript to make my own changes.
Did you know you can read a Kindle in the bathtub? Ask Jane!
>Did you know you can read a Kindle in the bathtub? Ask Jane!
Of course, the fact that you can does not mean that you should. Although, I suppose that replacing a dropped Kindle shouldn’t be any more traumatic that replacing a dropped ink-and-paper book.
Put it in an appropriately sized sealable plastic bag. I used to do that with my little HP Pocket comp all the time, and even worked on it in the tub since I could use the stylus through the plastic.
Oh, my. Yes. I read the kindle in the bath, fortified with some almond oil for my skin, a rolled up towel for the sake of the kindle and sometimes a Beverage for me. However, it does make me a mite nervous and I like the ziploc idea. The kindle is unlikely to get hot enough for that to be a problem.
I have a lovely bath desk, too, which I use for print books and for writing sometimes. Back problems — so being able to rest in the tub is sometimes really important and I can’t stand to be bored! LOL
Oh yes. And the ziplock bag is essential. Accidents do happen.
Yay, Kindle! I love mine!
Just don’t drop it in the water.
Now if only the Foreigner novels were all available for it 🙁
Spoiler Alert
#
#
My first post ever, anywhere. Been a huge fan for 20 years (first read Angel With A Sword). I didn’t get the avatar thing right but can’t resist commenting. Don’t know if this is the right place, but here goes: CJ, I’m utterly starstruck, but must tell you what your books have meant to me. They’ve been my solace, my refuge, my vacation spot. They’ve gotten me through some real rough patches, including my son’s deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan, my recovery from alcholism, and struggles with mental illness. When life gets too heavy, I can always go to Shejidan or Merovin or Cyteen; I may even have one or two tours on the Pride left in me (although I’ve practically memorized every word of the Chanur saga–BEST ending of any book ever? IMHO, Chanur’s Homecoming). I can’t imagine having the effrontery to critique your work, or to even ask for more of this or that character or world. Instead, I’m going to wrestle my new laptop into submission and start buying your e-books. Best wishes to you and yours, and here’s hoping for major success with Closed Circle. And thank you very, very, very much. Must log off and go back to Invader–again . . . I think Bren needs some help with his cast . . .
Welcome in! And thanks! E-books with something like Calibre or Mobipocket on the laptop are really very easy to manage…we’ll walk you through it!
So when she has a Eureka moment, she streaks down the quiet suburban street? Hahaha!
I want an iPad, darn it. More versatile. But the Kindle’s price and features _are_ attractive.
I like the Ziploc baggie idea. I’m more of a shower guy, usually, though. The hani idea of a good scrub, then nicely dry and clean, suits. Huh, I’ve never quite gotten used to those liquid body scrub bath soaps, though.
Oh right, the subject was proofing the beta. Good luck doing it on the Kindle. I wonder if you and Jane will wind up preferring it that way. Now on an iPad(or upcoming competitors) you might try speech to text.
Just be careful if the ship’s computer starts getting fresh, or wants to play a game, or gets finicky about opening doors. Getting very close to real versions of the original Trek’s gadgets, including Uhura’s earpiece.
Wrote a nice post and it disappeared (I think). Gone to computer purgatory. Apologies for getting off-thread, folks–your patience is appreciated. Thanks for answering, CJ. When cash arrives I’ll head straight for the Closed Circle store. I see you’ve thoughtfully provided an e-book tutorial– I will take that and hopefully not bug you with questions–your writing time is so very precious!
You can read a Sony 505 in the bath, too. It fits just right into a small ziploc bag, so it’s splashproof. I wouldn’t advise dropping it into the bathwather, though ^^.
I just read through Kindle for iPhone without protection: my feeling is the ziploc bag would be slipperier than the leather case, so maybe making me less wary and more likely to drop. Though, to be fair, my subconscious is also hoping a drop would justify replacing it with an iPhone4 or iPad …
Jane’s reckless: she’s been in there reading and taking notes without a bag. But we’re also real careful: we love that little Kindle.
@ rollingstone — Try the forum at shejidan.com ; people there are fans of CJ’s, Jane’s, and Lynn’s books. Also see Seeking-North.com ( *with* the hyphen ).
If you love science fiction and fantasy, try TerraFirmaScapers.com; they are transferring to a new server, but should be active again within one to three days. Their web address will not change. That’s a friendly forum. All sorts of folks are members.
I’ve read books with my good old palm centro in the bathtub. Since I won’t trust my luck I use a watertight covering from aquapac (or a clone product). Haven’t bought that one for bathing but for sailing – but works like a charm.
The palm centro has real keys to scroll, you can use them through the foil. My new reading device (thanks to a very generous Santa) is a galaxy tab – with touch screen … I’m not sure yet, if that would work through a watertight covering. Has anybody experience with a touchscreen device and how to wrap that waterproof so you can still use it?
I heard of the bag trick from a friend a couple years ago who took her Kindle to the beach and used it to keep sand out of the works. Maybe we should make a few extra dollars selling some ziplocks on Amazon as a Kindle accessory.
I suppose you are much more used to editing than I, but I find typos much harder to spot on a screen than on a print out …. or is it just that seeing it afresh in a new way is the trigger? just wondering how helpful a tiny Kindle screen can be … have only seen 2 of these beasties, and feel that the only use I would have for one would be when traveling, where it would be wonderful not to have to carry a couple or more of heavy books to keep me going …. have met 3 people who own them, for one it is brilliant as she is a non spanish reader who lives in the sticks in Spain, but the other 2 are semi-retired guys in their 60’s who have lots of dosh and love their toys, but only download the free books .. (one a judge, the other a neuroscientist) of course we in the UK have not had Kindle available for very long ….
I’ve seen @ KindleBoard that some use the Text 2 Speech feature for their editing. It seems they to the same as you do with your roads reading ;-P
@ purplejulian — Yes, seeing the page in another medium (print vs. Screen) can help spot typos and particularly punctuation and other typographical nuances (spacing, kerning, etc.). However, good magnification from a Kindle or Win/Mac platform nowadays makes screen proofing much easier and less error-prone. Having another pair of eyes than the author is important, because even a careful author gets so used to rereading his/her work that it can get too familiar to see the bits that he/she missed. A good editor needs good grammar and style skills, and a good proofer, in my opinion, needs not only good spelling and typography, but good grammar skills too.
@ ALL — Thanks to Shejidan, I found and ordered the in-print Mnémos translation of Cherryh’s L’Étranger from Amazon.fr and ordered it. Yay!
On the Kindle, changing font size also affects the placement of words on the screnn. This makes my most common error (the dreaded the the) stand out like a sore thumb. It is also much easier to see punctuation marks and decide whether you meant that to be a comma, a period, a colon or a semi-colon. It;s not that you can’t do that on the computer screen, but sometimes changing the background helps you see something with new eyes.